A diverse range of communication systems are in use today enabling communication between two or more entities, such as user equipment and/or other nodes associated with the system.
Communication systems providing wireless communication for user terminals or other nodes are known. An example of a wireless system is a public land mobile network (PLMN). A PLMN is typically a cellular network within a base transceiver station (BTS) or similar access entity user equipment (UE) such as mobile stations (MS) via a wireless interface. The operation of the apparatus required for the communication is usually controlled by one or more control entities, which themselves may be interconnected. One or more gateway nodes provide for connecting the PLMN to other networks. Examples of other such networks are other cellular networks, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) and packet switched data networks such as an IP (Internet Protocol) based network. The communication between the user equipment and other elements of the communication system are based on an appropriate communications protocol, which defines the ‘rules’ under which communication is handled in the system.
In a third generation (3G) wireless system, there are defined various servers for the handling of different communications services for mobile users. These include servers which provide core state control functions, known as CSCF. Control functions may also be provided by entities such as home subscriber server (HSS) and applications by various application servers. The HSS is typically for permanently storing the user's profile and use during authentication. For example, in the release 5 architecture for 3G, as specified by the third generation partnership project (3GPP), these entities can be found located within the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS).
The IMS network may sit at the hub of the 3G architecture, supporting an IP based network that handles both traditional voice telephony and multimedia services. The 3GPP has chosen session initiation protocol (SIP) as a core session signalling protocol for 3G networks. SIP has been developed by the Internet Engineering Taskforce (IETF). Those interested can find the 3GPP specification 24.229 describing the IMS network's basic operation from a SIP perspective titled ‘IP Multimedia Core Control Protocol Based on SIP and SDP’ at http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/specs/latest-drafts/24229-201.zip. SIP is a request/response style protocol, in the sense that for every message sent from a source, there is an associated response from the destination confirming the receipt of the sent message.
For example, in a 3G network, where a first user sourced switches on his mobile terminal, he must register his user ID or address with the network before allowing the terminal to fully connect. This is done by sending a SIP ‘REGISTER’ message from the terminal to the IMS, which includes details of the user's address. The IMS receives and processes this information using a serving call state control function (S-CSCF), which in this context is referred to as the ‘registrar’. This registration information may include the status of the user such as user address, location, terminal capability and user availability. The IMS acknowledges the registration by sending a suitable acknowledge message (e.g. 200 OK message) in accordance with SIP. Subsequent registration may also take place (re-‘REGISTER’) whenever the preceding registration has expired, or when there is a change in the status of the user. When a user wishes to set up a session with another user, such as a voice call or sending of a text message, the session negotiation will also be performed under SIP.
Application servers (AS) may supply services via the IMS such as instant messaging, local traffic reports, and conferencing facilities. An AS may reside within the IMS network, or outside of it. Typically the AS is external when the service supported is provided by a third party. For example, an AS providing local traffic reports may need the latest information on the status of any users subscribing to that service. As noted above, status information can be updated using an SIP re-register message. The AS further requiring this status information therefore subscribes, using a SIP SUBSCRIBE message, to the REGISTER messages sent by the user subscribing to the instant messaging service offered by the AS. The IMS logs these SUBSCRIBE messages, and sends out a NOTIFY message to the AS every time a relevant REGISTER message is received. The AS can then use this information to implement its traffic reporting service. Further information on the SUBSCRIBE/NOTIFY mechanism can be found in the IETF Internet draft titled ‘SIP—Specific Event Notification’ which can be found at http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ieff-sip-events-05.txt.
One specific example of status information is presence information. Users or application servers subscribing to a presence service can determine the ability and availability of another user to accept a call. For example, in a PSTN arrangement, the concept of presence extends to little more than an indication of being on-line (ringing) or off-line (engaged). However, in systems supporting SIP presence can assume a variety of indicators such as ‘in the office and available for all calls’, ‘at home and available for private calls only’, and ‘busy in call’ (or at least appear that way). This presence information allows a user to ascertain the availability of another user before attempting to make a call. Like other status information as discussed above, it is relayed to the network in a REGISTER message.
The presence information although providing information allowing a user to ascertain the availability of another user before attempting to make a call, provides no assistance to the problem of context dependant information on the user equipment e.g. providing the user information relating to a local service, e.g. such as a local taxi operator. Such initially provided information is useful within a given locality but outside of their locality the information linked to this service may be incorrect or effectively useless. Service numbers that work country wide are also extremely rare, although there are some national ticket booking systems such as cinema booking these require phoning a central number and passing through a series of filtering actions before reaching a local service. Users are typically frustrated when such systems cannot deliver the local service within a short amount of time. Furthermore to the author's knowledge there are no service numbers that exist that operate on a worldwide basis.
Adjusting the operating characteristic or elements of the user equipment or mobile electronic device dependent on context have been discussed in several documents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,476 describes a mobile cellular telephone that has a plurality of user adjustable operating characteristics such as the sound volume, the ringing tone type, and whether features such as key tones, warning tones, lights and call transfer are on or off. The user can adjust the operating characteristics of the phone en masse by selecting one of a plurality of groups of pre-set values for the operating characteristics.
US 2003/0017848 describes personalizing an electronic device by attaching one of a number of different interchangeable covers, each of which has its own theme. Each cover has an embedded electronic component that provides theme oriented features in the electronic device. The theme oriented features may include a ring tone, games, a screen saver, and a default voice mail greeting.
The embedded electronic component may also transfer to the electronic device names, phone numbers, resource server specifications, email addresses, and media content such as animation, audio or video. Interchanging covers of the electronic device changes the theme of the electronic device.
These documents describe the customisation of an electronic device, such as a mobile cellular telephone or other user equipment, by varying the manner of presentation by the device and the data available for use in the device.
However these documents do not discuss or address the problem of providing context dependent information for example local service information to a user travelling to different localities.
The documents further do not address the problem in mobile electronic devices, where mobile electronic devices get smaller and more feature rich, they become increasing more difficult to use. In particular, the menu of a device becomes complex and difficult to navigate. This is exacerbated when the menu is designed as a ‘flat’ hierarchy so that all menu options are accessible within a minimum number of keystrokes. The context dependent operation of an electronic device can help the operation of the mobile electronic device
It is the aim of embodiments of the present invention to address or at least mitigate the problems described above.